The Weekend

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Jul 312010
 

Why do I look forward to the weekend? After all, since I left the corporate treadmill I do pretty much what I like when I like. I’m under no great pressure so it’s not exactly that I need the weekend. Maybe it’s the routine that I cling to: work five days, relax for two. Although I don’t generally work on a Friday now and Saturday morning is house cleaning – hardly relaxing or enjoyable! Perhaps it’s because dining on Friday and Saturday evenings is a little more formal with slightly more interesting food and a carefully chosen bottle of wine. As is Sunday lunch. Not that we don’t have decent food the rest of the week or the occasional glass of wine.

I think that it is the meals that set the weekend aside. More effort goes into them. The food is often more complex and takes longer to prepare. The table is properly laid with best cutlery and candles. We change into smarter clothes. There is conversation rather than just eating. Overall the whole affair takes longer. It is more than a meal, It is an event.

Perhaps I need candles and a bottle of wine on my desk to improve weekdays!

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Mission Creep

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Jul 302010
 

We’ll need a new carpet in this bedroom. Hmm, the furniture is past its best, so we’ll replace that as well. Old wardrobe and chest of drawers are removed. Oh dear, look at the difference in paint colour behind the furniture. It is, of course, the original colour whereas the rest of the room has been exposed to light and has faded, but so gradually that we didn’t notice. OK, so we’ll have to decorate as well. Before the new carpet arrives next week. We’re changing everything else so now the curtains look shabby. Right, add new curtains to the list.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is known as mission creep. It happens when we agree to things without really thinking through the consequences; when we don’t plan properly or we move the proverbial goalposts. The upshot? The budget is blown and the delivery time drifts out. It happens in business projects as well as bedroom projects.

Of course, in the example described here, the delivery time isn’t extended as the carpet fitting has been booked already. What is happening is that your editor is working overtime to finish the decoration. Which, if he were being paid, would double the labour cost.

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Jelly, Sheep & Beckham

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Jul 292010
 

Commenting on yesterday’s post about the importance of timing, Judy Heminsley explained how Jelly has suddenly taken off, whereas it’s been around for a couple of years with little previous interest. There are a number of factors at play I believe. Think about a street performer. Most people walk by, either because they aren’t interested or because they are in a hurry or because, to use modern parlance, it isn’t cool to stand and watch. But once one person stops they are likely to be joined by a second. Then a third. Soon there is a snowball effect and the high street is blocked by the crowd. Sorry folks but most of us are sheep-like in our behaviour.

Social media has really taken off in the last couple of years and I’m sure that it has had a significant role in communicating the Jelly message. Judy’s own Jelly crusade shouldn’t be overlooked. 

Of course, if the media had spotted David Beckham working away at a laptop in the country’s first Jelly event, there would now be one in every town in the country. I wonder if Becks realises he could get a job as a shepherd?

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Timing Is Everything

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Jul 282010
 

I got wet yesterday. I went out at a time to coincide precisely with the only heavy rain shower of the day. Ten minutes earlier, ten minutes later and I’d have stayed dry. Whilst drying out I reflected on the importance of timing. Members of an orchestra may play all the right notes but if they don’t all play them at the same time it will sound pretty awful. Rush out a blog post littered with mistakes and we risk our reputation for thoroughness. Launch a product before the market is ready for it and it will flop. Launch as the bubble is bursting and a similar fate awaits.

We have to get the timing right. Simple to say, not quite so easy in practice. The orchestra’s problems can be sorted out by having a conductor. Business issues can usually be headed off by discipline and having project timing plans. AND putting in contingency. It isn’t a case of it might take longer than expected. It WILL take longer. Plan for it. Now I just have to work out how to fix the weather … or find my umbrella.

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Information Business

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Jul 272010
 

We’re having a couple of new carpets. Had a chap in to measure up and give us a quote. OK, when can you fit them? That’s sorted.

But hang on, shouldn’t we get a couple of other quotes? Well, yes but we’ve used this chap before, albeit many years before. We know, trust and like him. The business has been going 30 or 40 years as an independent so they must be doing something right.

On the other hand, when we had a new roof a couple of years back I researched half a dozen companies and had three or four in to quote. Why? As much as anything because I needed to learn as much as I could about roofs so that I had the technical knowledge so that I could ask all the right questions before placing the contract. The firm that got the job went out of their way to provide me with the information that I asked for. They could have tried to brush me off by suggesting they were the experts and I didn’t need to worry about details. But they were smart enough to provide information without a hint of patronisation. Information = reassurance = business won.

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